Walking into the digital smart facility agriculture demonstration park in Xiaoqiu Town, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, rows of high-standard smart greenhouses are neatly arranged.

Inside the greenhouses, IoT sensors collect real-time data on temperature, humidity, and soil moisture, while the intelligent water-fertilizer integration system supplies water and nutrients on demand. Managers can complete ventilation, temperature adjustment, and shading operations with a simple tap on their phones. This 2,285-mu modern agricultural park is a vivid example of the Shandong-Shaanxi east-west collaboration agricultural support project landing in Shaanxi. With the precise empowerment of policy-based credit funds from the Agricultural Development Bank of China Shaanxi Branch, traditional farmland is accelerating its transformation into a digital, standardized modern agricultural park, injecting strong new momentum into the rural industry revitalization of the old revolutionary base area.

Precise Matching Solves the "Funding Problem" of Construction

Smart facility agriculture requires large investment, has long cycles, slow returns, and narrow financing channels, which are the core difficulties constraining the smooth implementation of the project. The digital smart facility agriculture demonstration park in Xiaoqiu Town, Yaozhou, Tongchuan, has introduced Shouguang, Shandong's advanced planting model, planning to build high-standard solar greenhouses, multi-span seedling greenhouses, and a digital management and control system. The upfront fixed asset investment is relatively large, and the project faces a funding gap during construction. When the project first landed, some financial institutions came to make connections, but lacking in-depth understanding of the Shouguang agricultural model, financing progress was relatively slow. Liu Gangjian, head of Shouguang Agricultural Control Group and person in charge stationed in Yaozhou District, recalled: "At that time, several banks came to investigate, but they were unfamiliar with our project's operating model, and financing progress could not keep up with the construction pace. August is the critical period for vegetable planting, and greenhouse construction needed to be completed by the end of August so that seeds and seedlings could be brought in. Time was very tight." Bank and enterprise representatives inspected the growth of peppers in the smart greenhouse on site. To solve the financing difficulties, the Shaanxi Branch took the initiative to provide forward-looking services, set up a special task force to conduct research in Shandong, carried out multiple rounds of government-bank-enterprise coordination with local governments, comprehensively sorted out the full-chain funding needs of project construction and operation, conducted in-depth on-site assessments at the project front line, and tailored financing plans based on project construction patterns and industry revenue cycles, scientifically optimizing loan terms, interest rates, and fund disbursement pace. By the end of July, the first credit funds were successfully disbursed, mainly used for greenhouse and supporting infrastructure construction on 330 mu of land. "The Agricultural Development Bank, based on its policy-based financial functions, provides efficient services, implements credit policies quickly, and offers practical supporting measures, opening up the key funding link for us to land the facility agriculture project in Yaozhou. With funding support, we are more confident in rooting ourselves in Tongchuan Yaozhou, deeply cultivating rural industries, and developing intelligent agriculture," said Liu Gangjian.

Digital Empowerment Activates a "New Engine" for the Countryside

The strong support of policy-based credit funds has helped the old base area's agriculture gradually change from the traditional model of "relying on the weather for food and working by experience." With the credit support of the Agricultural Development Bank, the demonstration park has fully put digital agricultural facilities into use — IoT sensors collect real-time data on temperature, humidity, and soil moisture inside the greenhouses, the intelligent water-fertilizer integration system achieves precise regulation, and operations such as ventilation, temperature adjustment, and shading can all be completed via mobile phones, improving the level of intelligent and refined management of agricultural production. Yang Nan, technical director of the park project, introduced: "Open-field planting is greatly affected by natural disasters such as rain and pests, and the commercialization rate of agricultural products is relatively low, with only a limited proportion reaching supermarket standards. In facility greenhouses, the yield of screw peppers can reach 15,000 to 20,000 jin per mu, and tomatoes can reach 30,000 to 40,000 jin per mu. The fruits and vegetables have uniform appearance, and the commodity rate is significantly improved." At the same time, the utilization rates of water resources and fertilizers have improved, planting costs have been reduced, and fruit and vegetable output, land output efficiency, and park management efficiency have all increased. The park has introduced high-quality new varieties such as Qingtian No. 2, Seoul Red cherry tomatoes, cream cucumbers, and Rijk Zwaan 37-94 screw peppers, filling the gap in local facility fruit and vegetable varieties. The project has also introduced Shouguang's mature production and sales system, building a full industry chain from seedling breeding, field management, sorting and packaging, to cold-chain external sales. Park vegetables have dedicated sales stalls, directly supplying large supermarkets, effectively reducing intermediate circulation links, leaving more profits to the production end and farmers, broadening agricultural product sales channels, enhancing the market competitiveness of characteristic agricultural products in the old base area, and consolidating the industrial foundation for the park's long-term operation. Staff displayed "Seoul Red" cherry tomatoes.

Linking Farmers and Driving Them Along, Paving a "Income-Boosting Road" to Common Prosperity

Industrial quality improvement and efficiency enhancement must ultimately benefit people's livelihoods. The demonstration park focuses on building a mechanism that links and drives farmers, innovatively constructing a benefit linkage model combining land transfer and local employment, allowing local people to integrate into industrial development and share in the fruits of development. The project has transferred more than 2,200 mu of land in total, involving more than 500 local farming households. Before the park entered, most of the land in the area was idle or scattered with traditional crops such as watermelons and cherries, with low efficiency and limited channels for farmers to increase income. Now, local farmers transfer their land to the park and can obtain a stable transfer income of 1,000 yuan per mu per year. The project gives priority to hiring local villagers, and villagers work in the park nearby, achieving dual income from "land transfer rent plus work wages." The park has also set up demonstration trial greenhouses to explore a guaranteed-income model. Farmers participating in greenhouse management can obtain a guaranteed income of 30,000 yuan per mu. After the project is fully completed and put into operation, a farmer managing a 10-mu greenhouse is expected to earn about 50,000 yuan in wages, higher than going out to do odd jobs. Some farmers have gradually mastered digital planting techniques through their work, realizing the transformation from traditional farmers to new professional farmers. Farmers picked peppers in the greenhouse of the agricultural demonstration park. "Farming in greenhouses now is easy and efficient. Not only is there special guidance, but income is also much higher than before." This is the personal feeling of local farmers. Who is supporting the smart agriculture park? The answer lies in the newly built greenhouses, on the mobile-controlled screens, in the experimental fields of new varieties, and in the labor of the surrounding villagers. The Tongchuan Yaozhou digital smart facility agriculture demonstration park is a vivid practice of the Shaanxi Branch giving play to its agricultural policy-based financial functions and helping the development of the old revolutionary base area, and it is also a practical answer sheet for irrigating smart agriculture across the Sanqin land.